Twilight
by AmaraSidhe
Summary: Sequel to "Stardust," which apparently has been eagerly anitipated. Edge and Brianna have packed up and fled L.A., but do more perils await in the Big Apple? PG-13 for some language, sensual themes. Updated - 4/11/03
1. One

(Well, you people asked for it, and…finally, I got off my big fat rumpus and started it – the sequel to Stardust.  Anyway, feel free to toss your opinions and ideas at me, as I really feel like I'm venturing into new territory with this.  M'email's in my profile, so don't hesitate to give me a yell.  I don't bite, unless you're Mr. Becky.  *grin*  And as I've constantly reminded you, no WWE (or F or G for that matter) characters are mine.)

Twilight  
by AmaraSidhe

i.

He loved to watch her sleep.  
In the acidic wash of intruding streetlights and the last flickers of an amber sunset, he merely watched the slow rise and fall of Brianna's breath, the flicker of shadowy lashes.  
Snow White, lost in the magnificent cinema of her dreams.  
He watched her.  
  
This – was how it had started.

"Good morning, sweet princess…"  
  
Of course, morning had faded long ago, as had…  
Many things.  
His mortal life.  
Her safety.  
  
Nothing, though, would find them here.   Or at least _they_ wouldn't find them.  
_They_ had almost killed Brianna before – all he could do was hope they didn't find her and finish what they had started.  
  
His greatest fear – they would somehow come here, to this somewhat secluded apartment.  His dreamless sleep of before was gone, replaced by bloodied visions.  
  
And she worried as well, though not as incessantly.   
There was that plea in her voice when she spoke, that extra tug closer when she held onto him…  
She was his Brianna.  HIS.  
  
And he wasn't going to let anyone touch her here.  
  
This…was a new life.


	2. Two

ii.  
  
She didn't quite know how to take all of this - the move, the secrecy, just - all the changes. In her mind, Brianna knew it was worth it, but the fact that every thing was so.different was difficult.  
  
Neither of them had said this would be easy, but - Her life had changed forever.  
  
Her days had all but disappeared, days suddenly existing from sunset to sunrise, the unnatural order. She'd paled quite a bit, since she slept through the daylight hours.  
  
Yet she was still human.  
  
For some reason, he'd been oh-so-careful about that, disappearing when hunger pangs raised his need for blood, when the real monster came out. Destroying.  
  
It was a mere shadow of his former self, but a shade he couldn't shake away. His curse.  
  
Brianna had learned, though. Learned of her power, learned she was a witch. It was natural, a bloodline power, something. Pure.  
  
It could protect her, to a certain extent. Keep her safe - but only if humanity dwelled in her attacker. Just a shred.  
  
It was the same inner power, the same inner fire that had saved her from Edge's monstrous side.  
  
Brianna knew, though - she didn't know enough about this power. It might not save her again, if the worst -  
  
"Nervous, love?" It was then he appeared, stepping out of the blackness. Merely a habit for him, a convenience. Darkness had a certain grandeur to it.  
  
She jumped a little, startled by the sudden shattered silence, especially so close to the fire escape, the girl's chosen haven.  
  
"I didn't mean to scare you." A hand reached out, lightly touching her back, sliding to her waist. "If I did."  
  
"I know." Brianna could never stay angry with him for long, because in way, she understood. He'd not asked for the hand Fate had dealt him.  
  
They were, in essence, two different creatures. Myths. They were not supposed to exist in a rational world, even separately.  
  
Together - they stars must have made a mistake. And somewhere - she knew things were going to change - To keep this - there would be a struggle.  
  
"I'm just." The witch closed her honey-brown eyes, heaving a sigh, "thinking." 


	3. Three

iii.    
  
"About?"   
  
"Just things in general."  With a ghost of a smile, Brianna reached out for Edge's hand, giving it a bit of a squeeze.    
"This is just all so…surreal…"    
  
"Tell me about it."  He started back into the apartment, tugging her with him.  Brianna had become his life, and true, some days were more difficult than others, mainly because…  
She was still human.  
  
But – no.  He hated thinking that.  Sometimes, he had hallucinations – seeing her with fangs and blood dripping off her chin, her impossibly wide eyes without their glow of life, their innocence…  
It scared him.   
Sometimes, though, he thought that it would be a gift to keep her this way, make her his…  
Keep her young, pure…innocent…forever.    
  
"Now _you're _thinking about something…"    
"Don't worry about it."  Gently brushing Brianna's hair out of her face, he kissed her forehead, temporarily displacing any worry that she might have, reminding her that yes, this was a safe place.

For how long, though, he didn't know.

-*-

"She's there."  They'd followed the pair, intent on one thing…destroying Brianna.  
  
After all, it was because of her that Edge had abandoned them…  
He only watched over the witch now…  
  
And now – if it meant killing her to bring him back into the fold…  
So be it.


	4. Four

(Yes, you may all pass out in shock now. I have returned. Talked to Gwendolyn today, and - yes. The muse is back, so - hopefully, once again, I won't have let you down.)  
  
iv.  
  
There was something, always, tugging her into the daylight, to the sun-brightened skies, the place where nature said she belonged. It was where the Fates said she _should _be, in the light, as she was a creature of myth and beauty, and therefore belonged somewhere that the masses could stand enraptured in her beauty...  
  
However, the girl clung to the shadows now, a choice that her own hand had dealt, knowing full well the consequences of such a life.  
  
Death stood at her doorstep. Perhaps she could not always see it, but she knew it was there, staring at her with sightless eyes, whispering to her with stale breath.  
  
It pained her heart to know that eventually, it would claim her, as it did all things, from the frailest flower to the mightiest redwood -   
Brianna tended to think about things in the path of nature, the cycle of life as it applied to all that existed upon this earth.  
  
Everything. It all had its beauty, and it all of it had a place in the world.   
  
Even him. Even...things, people who didn't seem natural, didn't fall into the realm of what _should _be, yet somehow - was.  
  
There was a feeling of _wrong _to it, but it was something Brianna clung to, regardless. Without him, she knew the overwhelming loneliness that would consume her.   
  
She'd felt it before, it was something that she needn't ever feel again.  
  
Brown eyes flashed to her window, to the stormclouds converging over her new home, and she frowned, knowing that the light rain pattering over the glass would only worsen. Storms were on their way, and -   
  
The first storms of her new life.   
She's sure they wouldn't be the last.  
  
-*-  
  
The rain? It doesn't bother him anymore - he's spent more time in the rain than the witch had spent on this earth, in this mein -   
  
But the girl with the eyes as rich and as pale as finished maple, finespun caramel hair falling over her delicate frame, soft skin growing paler, almost luminescent -   
  
Because of him. Because she had sworn herself to him, tied her soul to his -   
Or so it seemed. But nonetheless, the witch had done something to him. Though she would deny anything...  
  
She had him spellbound. In awe. There was simply _something _about the purity of her soul that sang to him, tugged him into a delicate web.   
A strange masquerade.  
  
Once again, he ascended stairs, up to her doorway, roses in his hands. Roses, only half-bloomed, full of possibility, for a girl who seemed to only be on the cusp of her own greatness.  
  
It was something he feared. And adored.   
And always, always questioned. 


	5. Five

[ this place feels so unfamiliar and yet I know it well I think I used to belong here  
  
but the only way I can tell  
  
is that I miss you still  
  
and I cannot find you here ... ]  
  
- Poe, Spanish Doll  
  
The roses had been placed in a vase days ago, almost completely forgotten about - Brianna had other things on her mind for the moment, though she wasn't certain of what quite they were - there was something about the way the skies looked here, night after night -  
  
Even in the rare daylight hours Brianna saw, shadows seemed overcast, as if the smoke and the smog were trying to snuff out all life below the swirling skies of the city.  
  
As if the threat of the world below wasn't enough.  
  
She had almost forgotten what the daylight, what the day world had looked like, and simply --  
  
She didn't belong anymore.  
  
Her dark hair reflected the light now, cocoa eyes pools of endless dark - skin fragile and snow white -  
  
The distance between Brianna and the ouside world was apparent, as she was now a creature of ...  
  
Something else. Otherworldly.  
  
Granted, she was still in fact human, and perhaps that was what tied her to, albeit loosely, to the mortal threads of humanity. How long it would be until they broke?  
  
She didn't know.  
  
Even now, it was close to sunset, and as the girl wandered through the streets, a bag in her hands - she'd needed a few things at the store, and while she didn't like to go alone, Brianna knew that she couldn't break the ties she did have to things, as faint and simple as they were.  
  
It was now that she thought of things, thought about how live could have been, how it should have been - at least in anyone's logical mind. In a mind that knew not of witches and vampires and the real horror that the evening hours brought...  
  
In a mind that knew nothing about fleeing from things that haunted nightmares, but were so much more real than that...  
  
They wouldn't know. Ever.  
  
But it was a pain that was starting to burn in her heart, a stinging that reached her eyes moments later, the burning slowly tearing from her, tears streaming quietly down perfect features as she ascended the stairs.  
  
She knew he'd be there.  
  
She knew - this was her life now. This is. How she was to deal with that, she didn't know. Maybe she never would.  
  
She knew.  
  
He feared.  
  
They watched.  
  
It would all come to a point sometime. 


	6. Six

"Brianna?" The voice came out of nowhere, roused her from sleep - she'd  
tried so desperately to stay awake during the day today, an attempt to bring life back into her veins, a single reminder that she could walk in the sun, that she could walk amongst the creatures of the daylight, of the  
humanity she had once lived in without question.  
  
She knew better now, but it was nice to dream.  
  
But those honey brown eyes opened slowly, lashes flickering against pale  
skin as she adjusted again to the darkness, and there was a moment -  
  
She couldn't see anything.  
  
A dizzying feeling washed over her, and petite-boned hands reached out for  
something, someone...  
  
Fingers touched cold flesh, and she panicked.  
  
The feeling hadn't fallen away yet, and there was someone so close...  
  
She was so incredibly dizzy...  
  
It was hours later when she felt anything else.  
  
-*-  
  
He'd been kept away from her, kept in a scuffle that made immortal blood boil in his veins, a stabbing fear at his conscience.  
  
A fear fully realized. After he looked the one who had been at one time his lord and master in the face, as blows were exchanged - the fight had gone on far longer than he could have expected, but there had been time that had passed.  
  
Time for one to improve on fighting skills for this very reason. Time - to taunt the beast that boiled under the reformed one's thoughts, the carefully constructed mortality that had been set up like the most delicate card house, a castle over a blackened soul.  
  
But something there - drove the fight on.  
  
His brother was nowhere to be found.  
  
"Where...is...he..." A growl tinted his words aggressively, and Edge ducked, narrowly missing a blow. "Do I have to ask what..."  
  
"He's perfectly fine. Simply getting dinner. A very...rare dinner."  
  
The musing in the words answered fears. The torment that flared in his mind.  
  
Somehow, he could feel her strength fading, a shattering loss...  
  
He didn't have time to fight now. Couldn't. Another blow, and a hasty retreat, steps preternaturally swift, darting through the streets, losing himself in the maze more than once in his panic -  
  
No notice was paid to horrified passerby, having seen him has he truly was - the fury would not subside until he found her, and knew he was safe.  
  
Steps pounded on pavement, the apartment door making a sick crack as it was swung open -  
  
More footsteps, the sound deafening in his ears...  
  
The door to the apartment was open.  
  
His home. His haven. The place where his one hope of humanity had rested peacefully in the faint traces of moonlight.  
  
There was no sound as he ran to the bedroom.  
  
She lay still, blood seeping from two familiar puncture wounds.  
  
Those of his kind.  
  
Panic had no wars claiming him, at least for the moment. 


	7. Seven

Slowly, though, there was a soft sound rushing in her ears - somewhere, in her dimmed senses, the lethargy and helplessness that had come with this, Brianna could hear a sound ebbing and flowing in her head. Under her ears.  
  
A sound that resounded from her chest.  
  
Delicate murmur leaking through lips that had been unmoving, a trembling whisper over the internal backbeat of her life.  
  
A pulse.  
  
"Help me." The timid sound made him stop in his tracks, and eyes the color of the arctic skies fell upon Brianna's seemingly lifeless form. Gaze narrowed slightly.  
  
Paying attention for...something.  
  
The rise and fall of her breathing.  
  
Breathing.  
  
Red clouded his vision as tears of blood started to fall from the vampire's face. A unnecessary sigh, one of relief, even if they weren't out of the clear yet.  
  
She was alive. Barely, and he knew that he needed to calm himself before he could do anything that would be of her benefit, to save her, but at the very least -  
  
There was still a bit of life there.  
  
In that moment, his eyes turned to the wounds still present on her throat, the tiny bit of blood that remained seeping there - it was strange how the wound could still be bleeding, but it called to the monster inside, as if it would be all right, just this once...  
  
"Don't." The faint voice stopped him in his tracks, and Brianna's eyes opened once more, lashes flickering slowly. It was obvious that she was still living in a haze of confusion, but it was starting to clear.  
  
Slowly.  
  
That didn't mean she wasn't completely aware of what had happened; only what was going on now, and the way he stared at her with red-tinged gaze. Silent. Still.  
  
But still watching.  
  
The stare held both of them for a long moment - predator and weakened prey.  
  
A lion staring at a pale gazelle in an injured state.  
  
No. NO. Those images couldn't play in his mind; not with Brianna. He'd been so careful, so cautious to stay away from her when the beast rose within him, and yet there she was, laying - helpless, as far as he could tell, with the wound still fresh, blood slowly starting to dry on her neck.  
  
Was she even aware of it? How close to a frenzy he was?  
  
"I take you as my duty, I take you as my life..." His breath became ragged, and he stepped closer to Brianna, the girl moving back a bit in her bed, eyes wide. She wasn't certain that she could duck out of this, if she could stop him this time, but...  
  
"Please..." The whimper shook from Brianna's throat, and she wondered if this was how it would end.  
  
Footsteps approached.  
  
He reached his destination, and the vampire reached a hand out to gently brush Brianna's hair from her face.  
  
He moved - to watch her, to drown himself in her consciousness, into the pulse of a barely beating lifedrum...  
  
An unneccesary breath grazed against her collarbone. Eyes the color of ice watched, unblinking, as she studied the dried blood tears on his face.  
  
Another moment, suspended in time.  
  
"In time, I could take you as my childe." Moment broken. Gaze broken. He moves away from her, guilt of past sins enveloping a half-darkened soul.  
  
He was ever thankful.  
  
"But not now."  
  
"Not now," She repeated, still awestruck by the force there, by an unearthly beauty like she had never seen before. Something there tugged at her senses, made her want whatever it was he was offering -  
  
But once he pulled away, she knew better.  
  
Dangerous.  
  
Switchblade.  
  
Concern to chaos and returned.  
  
"I'll be all right." Voice still delicate, dangerously weak. She would not go to the hospital, she would see no doctor. A surge of power in her veins would promise her well-being.  
  
A power of life, at her quaking fingertips.  
  
"The only question is...will you...?"  
  
It was then the world again went black for Brianna, as rest was well needed.  
  
Rest - until the morning.  
  
Morning - held her safe.  
  
The sun would set before the angel rose again. 


	8. Eight

The next evening fell with little notice, and the girl awoke to an empty room, her dark eyes scanning for any sign of life, the repeat of a scene from earlier in time, when she had only begun to realize that the world was far larger and far scarier than she would have ever known.  
  
She knew more now, knew enough to make this just another day.  
  
It simply - didn't feel like another.  
  
Brianna rose to her feet, threw her clothes on haphazardly, watching herself in the mirror as she dressed, watching the folds of fabric slowly dance over her attractive frame, watching the way her dark hair played in the echoes of streetlight that came from the window across the room.  
  
Last night, she knew something had happened.  
  
She had almost died at the hands of one of his kind.  
  
Had almost become her beloved's own prey.  
  
Brianna couldn't shake the image of his face, of Edge's dried blood tears and fascinated hunger; she couldn't help but know that it was for her. For her blood.  
  
Blood that trickled with shimmering magic, forces that made vines hum and tremble from the window box, spilling over onto the floor. A sense of spirit that let the once-timid girl reach out and touch minds around her -  
  
She was still fearful of that, but knew it happened.  
  
She'd felt his thoughts last night.  
  
His hunger. His fascination. Fear. Guilt.  
  
In that fleeting moment, she had felt a whirlwind, but hadn't felt what she had been told so many times.  
  
There was no feeling for her. Simply of her. As if he'd done this before, as if she were simply another face in a timeless crowd, a face that could be washed away with the rain, another who could simply be picked off and replaced.  
  
She knew it not to be so.  
  
But she hadn't felt it.  
  
After dressing, Brianna simply took her keys, nothing more. The darkness welcomed her as she emerged from the door, shadows curling around her with the night air. It seemed...chilly.  
  
Damp.  
  
Rain was on the horizon.  
  
Brianna didn't seem to notice as the clouds opened above her, as the first drops of a storm pattered onto the concrete below her feet, though she could certainly feel the explosion that sent the clouds exploding into a thousand crystalline tears.  
  
She felt it, for it was in tune with her soul.  
  
The sky's tears were her own.  
  
Footsteps carried her away from the apartment, carried her away from the safe haven. Carried her away from his haven. Theirs.  
  
She knew she would return.  
  
She knew this life of peril, and like a fool, she wanted it.  
  
She had no desire to be of his blood, of Kindred's fate -  
  
But for now - she couldn't...let...go.  
  
A voice rang from behind her as thunder rolled above, a sound being lost in the dim cacaphony -  
  
She knew it to be his.  
  
A glance over her shoulder, a small reaching out with her mind, with her soul...pleading...  
  
"Tell me you wouldn't."  
  
She says nothing more. He doesn't reply.  
  
For the moment, there is rain, and there is silence. 


	9. Nine

"At that moment, you would have." Brianna glances to the sky for a moment, the realization setting on her like a thousand bricks - she'd been trying to tell herself that he wouldn't do such, that there was something there, a feeling for her.  
  
He'd obviously wanted her safe, because he had brought her here, had stayed with her when they had been in California.  
  
There needed to be some shred of decency, some sliver of humanity, for him to do that.  
  
Or perhaps he could feel the hum in her veins that drew most others. Had made the one who attacked her almost drunk as it had washed down his throat, as she lay there, completely helpless...  
  
The memories were starting to make their way through gossamer filtering, cobwebs that had been placed there by a subconscious desire to simply forget.  
  
"Bri..." A tortured look flashed in his eyes as he watched her, watched the fear that sparked in lovely dark eyes. The way her fingers moved to run through damp chestnut colored hair...  
  
True beauty...  
  
Yes, the obsession was still rather healthy in his mind.  
  
The draw of this prey...  
  
Angel...  
  
Brianna.  
  
"It's not important what I would have done, Bri. I didn't..."  
  
The silence drives through again, the conversation jerky, awkward.  
  
He stops.  
  
She keeps walking, head lowered.  
  
"Listen to me, please. Just..."  
  
His words fall on deaf ears, and it was beginning to become more than a touch frustrating.  
  
It showed in his movements, which were becoming hurried, steps quicker until he stood before her, making sure the girl couldn't move any further forward.  
  
Fingers curled under her chin, tilting her face up - the stars in her eyes were dim, her countenance a bit paler than he would have liked to see.  
  
It'd taken a lot out of her, the attack had. Taken more than he'd beem willing to notice firsthand.  
  
He still thanked god that it hadn't killed her. Or worse.  
  
"Listen to me. Tell me. Bri, if I don't know..." A shiver passed through his touch, playing over Brianna's skin as she seemed to catch the feeling.  
  
She knew he meant what he said.  
  
Or maybe - she was lying to herself.  
  
"You can't help me. That's what, right?" Luminous gaze watched the vampire again, and her fingers reached up to meet his hand, pulling it away from her face. "He...I couldn't...it felt like you, but I knew it wasn't."  
  
The feeling made her sick; the snarl that tremored in the night air brought goosebumps to fragile flesh. He knew what she was talking about, that was for certain.  
  
The dangerous glint in blue eyes was enough to tell her that, even if no words were spoken.  
  
The steps away from her, the need to collect himself before he went mad...  
  
"Tell me." Edge's voice was eerily calm, but in places there were signs of strain.  
  
He wanted to kill something tonight.  
  
Her answer would give him all the reason he needed.  
  
"He said..." The witch tries to remember, tries to sift through the abstract shards of the moment, piecing them together into something that would help. "He just came in, I was sleeping...and he said..."  
  
"What." No question.  
  
"It was a favor to you. It..." Brianna shook her head, already feeling her memories starting to fog. "He said you would have killed me yourself, if..."  
  
"If I wasn't so damned...aware." A long sigh, and his fingers curled around hers, tugging her absently back in the direction of the apartment - he knew it probably wasn't a place she would feel safe now, but he didn't want to keep her in the rain like this.  
  
"I used to be a very bad person, y'know? I just...did things. Without thought. Because I could. Because playing with people was fun, and watching them suffer meant that I'd won."  
  
He didn't necessarily kill sometimes, but - maiming was a likely prospect for every victim. At the very least.  
  
"After so long, Bri...it just...you either realize, or you fall into a frenzy so deep you care about nothing but your own survival. Most..." He needn't finish.  
  
Most didn't care what happened to the people they once were. Not after everything they knew was ravaged, taken away...  
  
"I'm not even going to try to explain how I got to the here and now, though. Would take too much. Just know..."  
  
Again, he watched her - the way she moved hesitantly to follow him, knowing that even by doing such, she was defying all logic and reason in the world. Defying all that would keep her safe.  
  
Not that safety was possible, anymore.  
  
"I'm always capable of falling again." 


End file.
